Carnal hands
Our publicity is geared to catch carnal believers and the uninterested
world, and, in this, lies the danger. Christian leaders must be
constantly on guard against uncircumcised and carnal hands touching
this part of the Lord's work. Seth Joshua, one of the chosen
instruments of the Welsh revival of 1904, relates with deep insight:
The Welsh revival was the product of much soul agony. In its initial stages, the production retained its full bloom, as when a peach is plucked from a tree. It lost this when human fingers played with it and newspapers reported every odd thing for the sake of circulation among people who desired the human side of revival made public. Reports threw light on the human side of things, and the divine was forgotten.
Christ always comes in lowly guise and always brings His cross with Him. Spontaneous, New Testament revivals begin in the secret of holy obscurity with insignificant and broken instruments - instruments which have passed through a Gethsemane experience and have become worms in the dust before a great and holy God. Oh, beloved, please remember reverently that it's only when the revival is a matter of history that it becomes a subject of applause.
Leaders
First, our leaders are to blame for wrong publicity. They should protest as never before against all snares of propaganda which appeal to the flesh. They must seek to control as never before the propaganda concerning their campaigns and societies. Charles Inwood stated at an English Keswick Convention meetings:
Now I'm going to say a very solemn thing. I dare not say it except under very clear leading and a very solemn constraint. It is this: My firm conviction is that the arrest of the Welsh revival of 1904 was largely due to racial pride and worship of a leader, which developed later in the history of that movement. God will not give His glory unto another.
Writers
Second, our Christian writers are to blame. They must search their hearts - or to use a good Scandinavian word, "ransack" their hearts - and diagnose their motives. In most cases, it would seem they are writing only on popular men and movements for a wide circulation of their magazines and papers. Very few will write about the Lord Jesus, Himself. They are always looking for the human-interest story as do the unconverted newspapermen. They're seeking to feed the minds of carnal believers who don't desire the deep things of God.
Study our evangelical magazines. They'll devote pages to outstanding leaders and societies but will give only a few lines about the Lord Who blessed and enabled the instruments. Christian editors know full well that if they devoted their magazines entirely to the deep things of God, the circulation would immediately begin to drop. Those papers which devote themselves exclusively to Bible exposition and devotional messages can hardly keep going financially, so small is the interest.
Our Christian publishing houses have discovered also that Christian novels and popular books written by popular leaders sell, while, deep spiritual books generally remain on the shelves. How few of the books and magazines today drive us to our knees in adoration or intercession!
This is copyrighted material from James Stewart's book Come O Breath!, available from Revival Literature, PO Box 6068, Asheville, NC 28816.
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